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Topic: Hunter X Hunter (2011) (Read 3284 times)

I have been meaning to read this series for years, around the time Yu Yu Hakusho ended on American television to be exact. It was recommended to me, and after only skimming the first few chapters despite hearing good things about it, but life took over. So, for the next near-decade I put the series on the shelf, not even knowing that there was a 1999 series already made. I don't think I can sit through that one because of the filler, but it's cool watching the youtube comparisons. Blue-haired Hisoka looks so retro it's jarring. Even his face is drawn old school and it's eery.

I'm still not current, but feel free to post current ep spoilers. I'll tiptoe around until I catch up. Meanwhile, I'm going to post some quick reviews of what I have watched (eps 1-50), and continue another chunk later.

Hunter Exam arc:

I had some idea Hisoka was a player from the series' fan base. Both he and Killua would be the characters I'd keep my eye on, because whenever they'd show up something would happen. Surprised Leorio didn't pull as much weight as the other main characters, but Kurabara was the same way in YYH. I thought he was some kind of Hunter liaison to be honest. I had some idea of the upgrades Kurapika would get later in the series, so I knew he was one to watch too. Even though he looked skilled in this arc, he took a backseat to Killua for some reason. I get a very Kenshin-y vibe from him and wonder if it's the same seiyuu.

Another thing I noticed with this arc is that people die so casually, and it doesn't get any better as the series goes on. Crunchyroll won't stop comparing this arc to Naruto, but it's understandable. The main draw here seemed to be how Hisoka and Gon would play against each other, especially during that badge retrieval mini-arc.

The ending credits kept making me think there were 5 Hisokas, especially when Hisoka kept communicating to other members during the arc via radio.

Anything with the short stocky guy that kept interrupting everybody's progress was my least favorite of this arc, as things tended to drag quite a bit. Glad he hasn't shown back up.

Zoldyck Family arc:

Surprisingly short, but I like the characters introduced here, especially the butlers. Legendary coin trick here. It's interesting how the '99 anime had them use the excuse that they threatened Gon with the game to make time pass faster, while in the 2011 they were just jerks. :D

Killua's dad looks like Barbatos Goetia, the antagonist in Tales of Destiny 2 (Seen here at 1:30), so I will forever think of him as the Tales of Guy. Sucks to be Killua, family manipulations and mind games run strong with his lot. Robocop mom was a cool touch though.

Heavens Arena arc:

Very much enjoyed this arc, just for the RPG feel of it. It is essentially an homage to the standard Grinding Colosseum found in any JRPG in fact. The Nen stuff seemed like it would have been hard to grasp, but they do a good job of selling it, as long as they explain what it is during use, which they have been. I also like that this series labels what each attack is instead of having the character announce it to the world like shonen tends to do. Never made any sense, why would you announce your attacks to the enemy and give it away?

So the basis of this arc seems to be that Nen is going to be this series energy system; if you're somebody, you fight with auras.

Was not expecting the whole Hisoka going into full orgasm mode during his fights. At all. From that point, the Phantom Troupe thing also surprised me. He's doing a good job at staying relevant to the plot, even though he's pretty one-track minded.

Yorknew City/Phantom Troupe arc:

This is where things really take off.

Gon and Killua remind me of how horrible the business of game collecting can be. Wonder if the 2011 version is adding things, because there really weren't enough consoles around in the late 90s to say things like "this system was a gem in its day." Made it sound like he was comparing PS1s and PS2s, even though the PS1 would have still been the only console around.

Interesting that Gon doesn't want to know anything about his mother, guess that'll be taken care of another time. Ging wins father of the year indeed, saying that he'll hide if Gon tries to look for him.

And Kurapika is set on making his way to the Phantom Troupe, and he's not fucking around one bit. This is my favorite part of the arc. The magaka did a fine job of making Uvogin a threat (pretty gruesome), and I wasn't sure how Kurapika was going to handle that. I did make note of the limit he put on his heart, and hope he doesn't fight Hisoka. :(

Just got done with Gon and Killua escaping. Wondered how they were going to fit into this arc, and it's interesting seeing Killua come to terms with actually being weak this time. This show know how to tell power levels properly.

There was something in the Greed Island arc I want to bitch about now, but I will wait until you're at least half way through it.

I think I'm at that point now. These training arcs are kinda forced, mainly because they take 2 weeks at a time and not eat at all. I mean fight off a serial killer nonstop and never rest? For 2 weeks? Really now.

I'll be honest, I missed a few episodes here and there and my interest has been waning during the Greed Island arc. I kept trying to pause the video to read all the card descriptions, but then it never really mattered because they just use Nen for most of the plot.

I'm on one of the good episodes now, where Gon and co. get to fight the bombers, but I'm really looking forward to the next arc.

Also, this is from the '99 series, but for some reason it reminds me of when Loak posts muscle girls.

The problem I had with the Greed Island arc was that the Phantom Troupe showed up and they made a big deal about getting the leader his Nen back. They had that whole side arc with the excorcist and NOTHING came from it. Chrollo never was mentioned again. Why did they even put them in this arc?

Aside from that, I didn't feel like this arc was too slowly paced. I did think that the Phantom Troupe arc dragged toward the end. I was ready for it to end.

Chimera Ants are FUCKED UP. They do things and kill people in ways that are far more severe than anything else thus far.

That regular soldier seemed pretty strong. When is Bisky going to come back and make them shovel some more?

-These ant people bring a lot of chaos to the plot. Can't tell when Gon and Killua are going to find a safe place to train, but I see more training eps forthcoming. Leorio's gonna be soooooooo behind when this is all done.

-Sucks about the archer and bee girl from the hunter exam, but I expected them to go, these ants are taking the current arc/overpowered trope and running with it.

-I like the fact that Gon is slowly dressing like Yusuke. Even his attacks are looking more and more like finger-pointing spirit guns.

-Killua might want to 'stay serious' for the remainder of this arc just to be on the safe side. Sheesh.

-Also interesting politics going on at the side. The concentration camp/abuse was especially hard to watch, and seems kind of abrupt to have the guy killed right after all that backstory. They bring him up later in this episode, so I see something foreshadowing.

-Was this before the OVAs stopped from the last series? I'll have to research.

-These ant people bring a lot of chaos to the plot. Can't tell when Gon and Killua are going to find a safe place to train, but I see more training eps forthcoming. Leorio's gonna be soooooooo behind when this is all done.

I think Leorio is on a perma-bus. I read somewhere he was supposed to be a more prominent character, but the fans didn't like him as much as the boys.

-Sucks about the archer and bee girl from the hunter exam, but I expected them to go, these ants are taking the current arc/overpowered trope and running with it.

Sharp and I did noooooot expect that. I was especially sad to see the bee girl go like that. It was brutal.

-Also interesting politics going on at the side. The concentration camp/abuse was especially hard to watch, and seems kind of abrupt to have the guy killed right after all that backstory. They bring him up later in this episode, so I see something foreshadowing.

This version of the show is paced faster than the old one, so I think that they just took a long arc and just recapped the shit out of it. I think he's gone for good.

-Was this before the OVAs stopped from the last series? I'll have to research.

No idea.

I wonder why they made the bunny/bird guy the one to get the Nen. He's terribly hard to take seriously with his speedo.

I think the bunny guy's one of those Grimmjow-type characters (Bleach ref.), where they're just the crazy guys that set the stage for the harder bosses. The Cell Kid (DBZ ref.) is next in line to learn Nen, so I don't see bunny guy around much longer, especially at the speed the series goes.

Speculation: The opening seems to suggest Gon gets eaten at some point. Wonder how that will go.

Also, I love the new fight music for this arc. Fits the ants very well.

-First off, sucks to be the archer guy. Making his brain chop suey reminded of me of something the Pillar Men would do.

-Gross, soylant green meat sausages

-Are these ants being born with clothing or are they just bumming pieces off the victims? If so, why is the lion guy dressing like Hot Topic? There should be no human on the island that dressed like that.

-lol at rabbit man cowing down immediately. That stops his nonsense. For some reason Crunchyroll says cat girl may actually be a boy, but this species is such a mishmash of genes and traits she's probably everything.

-I honestly don't know how they can make the ants any more overpowered. Or rather, I still don't know how Gon and Killua are supposed to train for this. I really want to read the manga now, but at the same time I like how the anime just gets to the point.

-Enter Palm, Mav's potential waifu candidate. She even does the "b-baka"/blush stuff XD

-And Bisky spent her share of the Greed Island money

-Kite's corpse looks a lot more in one piece than what was in the manga...

-I see Knuckle has met Batman. Pretty sure he's voiced by the guy who's going to voice Okuyasu from JoJo Part 4. On the subject, I'm wondering if Bisky's being voiced by Shantotto's character from Dissidia. The voice and laugh are very familiar.